Separation of oil



Sept. 29, 1931. A. B. JONES SEPARATION OF OIL Filed Feb. 24, 1928 HHH'SMM/1mg QM mm.

Patented Sept. 29, 1931 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE ARTHUR B. JONES, OFNEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR TO INDUSTRIAL ASSOCIATES, INC.,

F NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK SEPARATION OF OILApplication led February 24, 1928. Serial No. 256,553.

This invention relates to improvements in the separation of oil. p

An object of this invention is to effect quickly and economicallyseparation of the variousfractions of crude petroleum or mixtures of twoor more oils or waxes of diEerent specific gravities or melting orboiling pointsl without injuring or cracking the oils.

According to this invention, the liquid, having as one fraction thedesired oil, is brought into contact in highly dispersed form in atreating chamber with a gaseous medium previously heated to atemperature sufficiently high to vaporize the desired oil and thusseparate it from the remaining liquid. The distillate thus obtained,together with the gaseous medium, is then passed through a scrubberwhich may be a fractionating column in which fractions heavier than thatdesired in the ultimate product which may have been carried overtherewith are separated therefrom. From the scrubber, the desired oilinvapor form and .mixed with the gaseous medium is passed through acooling chamber in which the oilis condensed and the gaseous mediumcooled. Preferably, the condensation and cooling is accomplished byspraying cold water or other liquid having lower boiling point than thedesired product 80 in highly dispersed form into the chamber.

From the cooling chamber, the gaseous medium passes through a secondscrubber which removes any oil that may have been carried over by thegaseous medium from the water tower. By means of a fan or other blower,.a portion of the gaseous medium is returned to the treating chamber tobe again contacted with fresh liquid. Just before the returning gaseousmedium enters the chamber, itis reheated and fresh hot gases areaddedthereto. That portion of the gaseous medium not returned to thetreating chamber is vented from the system through a suitable scrubberor'water cooled condenser.

liquid of which it is a constituent is very quickly accomplished, asvaporization takes place immediately after ythe liquid is sprayed intothe treating chamber. The desired oil l is then obtained merely bypassing the dis- The separation of the desired oil from the l tillateand gaseous medium through the fractionator and into the cooling towerwhere water is sprayed into the distillate and gaseous medium and in thebottom of which the desired oil accumulates. The water used to condensethe desired fraction is itself vaporized to steam and is carried off bythe pump. The water tower, since it sprays the water in highly dispersedform thus bringing about thorough dispersion of the water through thedistillate, effects condensation of the fraction effectively and veryeconomically andv obviates the use of cumbersome and expensive heatexchangers or condensers. As a large portion of the gaseous medium isreheated and returned to the treating tower, the expenditure of heat isrelatively slight, thus rendering the operation very economical. Sincethe distillation products obtained in the treating tower do not come incontact with highly heated surfaces, cracking or destructivedistillation of the oil is avoided. However, if desired, a sufficientlyhigh temperature for cracking or destructive distillation of the oil maybe produced in the treating tower.

Other objects, novel features and advantages of the invention will beapparent from ,the following specification and accompanying drawings,wherein the single iigure diagrammatically illustrates one form ofapparatus for carrying out the process.

In the drawings, 10 designates the treating or distillation chamberwhich is provided with a discharge pipe 11 controlled by a valve 12. Aconduit 13 connects the bottom of the chamber 10 with the bottom of ascrubber or fractionating column 14 which is provided with a drain pipe15 controlled by a valve 16. The scrubber 14 may be a bubble tower ormay be a single chamber packed with Raschig rings or steel wool sectionsfor effecting separation of heavy oil from more volatile oil. A conduit17 leads from the top of the scrubber 14 to the top of a coolin chamberor water tower 18 which is provi ed with a drain pipe 19 controlled by avalve 20. In the top wall of the water tower 18 is provided 'a sprayeror atomizer 21 which may advantageously be constructed and operated inaccordance with the disclosure in the patent to C. L. Riley, No.1,624,847, of April 2, 1927, or an ordinary jet atomizer using pressureor steam may be used, but I prefer the mechanical atomizer firstmentioned. A pipe 22 controlled by the valve 23 is provided forsupplying water to the sprayer 21.

A conduit 24 fconnects the bottcm of the water tower 18 with t-he bottomof a second scrubber 25 which may comprise a single chamberprovided withRaschig rings or steel wool sections for separating liquid entrained inthe gaseous medium. A drain ipe 26 controlled by a valve 27 is provideat the bottom of the scrubber 25. From the to of the scrubber 25, aconduit 28 controlled b) a valve 28a leads to the inlet of afan orot erblower 29, the outlet of which is connected to a conduit 30 which leadsinto the upper portion of the treating chamber or oil tower 10.l

A heater, preferably a surface combustion burner 31, isconnected withthe'conduit 30 and is supplied by the pipe 32 with fuel mixed with air.vent 33 leads'from the conduit 28 through a scrubber 34 equipped with adrain pipe 35 controlled by a valve 36. After the' apparatus has been inoperation for some time, the circulating gas will consist chiefly orentirely of products of combustion and st'eam vapor.

WIn the 'top wall of the oil tower 10 is provided a jet sprayer oratomizer 37 similar to that disclosed in the aforementioned Riley patentto which crude oil or other liquid from which a fraction is to'beseparated is supplied by the pipe 38 controlled by valve 39.

' The operation of the apparatus "above described is as follows. The fanor blower 29 is started and the gaseous medium in the system is causedto circulate. By means of the heater 31, the circulating stream ofgaseous medium is heated by additionl of hot gases of combustion untilthe temperature desired in f highly dispersed condition and is thus4theatomizing chamber` is obtained and oxygen is reduced below explosionlimits. The valve 39 1s then opened and the liquid to be treated 1sint-roduced-into the chamber 10 in brought into Contact with the gaseousmedium. At the same time, the cooling water is turned on in the clfamber18. The contact of the liquid with the. hot gaseous medium lcausesdistillation of the lower boiling constituents of the liquid.`

The undistilled constituents are drained from the, tower through thepipe 11 while the evaporized constituents, together with the gaseousmedium, pass by way of the conduit 13. through the scrubber 14 in whichfractionation of the vaporized constituents is accompllshed and theundesired fractions liquefied and separated from the desired fraction.The condensate thus formed is drained from the scrubber through the pipe15. The desired fraction vapor phase, together with the gaseous medium,passes from the scrubber 14 through the conduit 17 into the coolingchamber 18. In this chamber, water or other liquid having lower boilingpoint than the desired product is sprayed into contact with the gaseousmedium and the vaporized fraction, thus effecting condensation of thedesired fraction, the cooling of the gaseous medium and vaporizationvofthe water into trained liquid is separated from the gaseous medium andremoved from the scrubber through the pipe 26. From the scrubber, thegaseous medium and steam pass through the conduit 28, the major portionthereof going uto the fan 29 and the remainder being vented through thepipe 33 and scrubber 34. The discharge from the fan 29 is returned tothe tower 10 by the conduit 30, is reheated on its way by the surfacecombustion burner 31,;

and has added to it the products of combustion of said burner. Theportion of the circulatin stream continuously vented through the plpe 33compensates for the gases of combustion and the water vaporaddedthereto.

As a concrete example of the operation of the process, assume thattopped mid-oom. tinent oil is to be separated into bottoms and paralindistillate. The apparatus is operated as described above and thetemperature;v

so controlled that 'the gases leaving the oil chamber are maintainedabove the-l boiling point of the paraiin distillate and below theboiling point of the bottoms. .The gaseous` medium is thereforeintroduced into the@- chamber 10 at approximatel 800 F. and the oil issprayed into the cham er at the roper rate to produce a drop to about 700? The temperature of the incoming gaseous medium may be more. than 800F. but in that case more oil would have to be atomized in order not todistill over any of the bottoms with the paraiin distillate. The rate offlow of the oil is easily regulated by the valve 39 and the temperatureofthe incoming gaseous medium is controlled by the quantity of gassupplied to the burner 31. After atomization, the paratlin distillate invapor phase and the gaseous medium pass through the scrubber 14 vtoremove any bottoms that may be entrained ber 18 and in the scrubber 25.The amount of circulation and thereby the capacity of the plant iscont-rolled by regulation of the valve 28a. The gaseous stream will thenpass at 400 F. into the fan and thence through the heater to thetreating tower 10.

According to the invention described, the oil is treated extremelyquickly and so cracking thereof is prevented. T-he apparatus isinexpensive, as it does'not require heat eX- changes with largesurfaces. The invention is widely applicable for the eiicientfractionation ofl oils of different boiling points and specificgravities and the restoration of the apparatus and the material treatedabove given merely indicates one of the numerous applications of theinvention. This method of fractionation has the advantages of economy offuel, ease of control, continuous operation, low cost of operation, andhigh quality of product. If it is desired to crack the distillateobtained in the treating chamber, such cracking may be accomplishedbyhigh temperature.

The heater 31, although disclosed as a surface combustion burner, may beany type of heater which will effect complete combustion of the fuelwithin a closed chamber and can thus be associated with the conduit 30without effecting reduction of the pressure developed therein by the fan29 and without pollution of the circulating gases or a heat exchangermay be used. The scrubbers may be of any type which will fractionateeffectively and may be used in any number to obtain satisfactoryresults. The condensate collecting in these scrubbers may be used eitherto assist in the fractionation operation or maybe returned to the mainatomizing tower for further treatment.

It is apparent, of course, that various modiiications may be made in theapparatus disclosed without in an way departing `from the spirit of theinvention as defined in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. The process pf obtaining a hydrocarbon fraction from a hydrocarbonliquid of which said fraction is a constituent which comprises producinga circulating stream of combustion gases free from tar and solid matter,directing said stream downwardly through a distillation zone maintainedat a tem erature above the maximum boiling point o the desired product,centrifugally atomizing said hydrocarbon liquid and spraying the sameinto the upper portion of said zone, withdrawing the unvaporizedconstituents of said hydrocarbon liquid from said distillation zone,directing said stream downwardly through a condensing zone and sprayinginto the upper part of said zone cooling liquid of lower boiling pointthan the desired roduct thereby condensing the desired pro uct andvaporizing'the cooling liquid, withdrawing the liqueed desired productfrom said condensing zone, venting gas from said stream and adding tosaid stream fresh combustion gases free from tar and solid matter tomaintain the required temperature in said distillation zone.

2. The process of obtaining a hydrocarbon fraction from a hydrocarbonliquid of which said fraction is a constituent which comprises producinga circulating stream of combustion gases free from tar and solid matter,directing-said stream. downwardly through a distillation zone maintainedat a temperature above the maximum boiling point of the desired product,centrifugally atomizing said hydrocarbon liquid and spraying the sameinto the upper portion of said zone, withdrawing the unvaporizedconstituents of said hydrocarbon liquid from said distillation zone,directing said stream through a scrubbing zone to remove from the streamhydrocarbon having boiling points above the maxim-um boiling point ofthe desired product, directing said stream downwardly through acondensing zone and spraying into the upper part of said zone coolingliquid of lower boiling point than the desired product, therebycondensing the desired-product and vaporizing the cooling liquid,withdrawing the liquefied desired product from said condensing zone,venting gas from said stream .and adding to said stream fresh combustiongases free from tar and solid matter to maintain the requiredtemperature in said distillation zone.

- In testimony whereof, I. have signed my name to this specification.

i ARTHUR B. JONES.

